Volkswagen's August sales buoyed by Europe and China

BERLIN – Volkswagen says its global sales were up 6.3 percent in August compared with a year earlier thanks to strong gains in Europe and China.

Those advances helped offset lower deliveries in the United States.

The company said Friday that the Volkswagen Group, whose other brands include Audi, Skoda and Porsche, delivered 759,400 vehicles last month. That's up from 714,400 in August 2015, the last full month before news of the company's emissions-rigging scandal broke in the U.S.

Sales in Europe were up 8.3 percent at 264,500 while deliveries in China rose 19.7 percent to 323,600. In the U.S., sales dropped 3.8 percent to 54,300.

For the first eight months of 2016, sales were up 1.8 percent compared with a year earlier at 6.66 million vehicles.